Moomal Shekhawat

This Foundation Project implemented by IFA will facilitate research towards creation of a performative script and a sound based installation based on the letters of correspondences across various collections at the Archives at National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS). This project is a collaboration with the Archives at NCBS, Bangalore, Karnataka. The Archives at NCBS is a public centre for the history of science in contemporary India. Over 350,000 processed objects across 50+ collections are available in various forms, ranging from paper-based manuscripts to negatives, photographs, books, fine art, audio recordings, scientific equipment, letters, and field and lab notes. The holdings include the papers of the ornithologist, Ravi Sankaran, and the molecular biologist and co-founder of NCBS, Obaid Siddiqi. Moomal Shekhawat is the Project Coordinator for this project.

Moomal Shekhawat is a practitioner of weaving and a researcher. She currently works as a designer for the Raqs Media Collective, Delhi. Moomal previously has been a Research Associate at the Visual Culture at School of Environment and Architecture, Mumbai. Few exhibitions that she has been part of include: Covid Glossary at Bibliowicz Gallery, Cornell Art, Architecture & Planning, (2022) and BookShow1 at Foundation of Indian Contemporary Art and SNU, Delhi, (2024). With Raqs, Moomal’s work Being Theoria, was exhibited at Zhejiang Art Museum, as part of 4th Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art, in China (2022), at Cosmic House, London in 2023 and in 2024 at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre in Mumbai. As an archival researcher, she has published The Other Drawings with Apurva Talpade and Meta.space, a publication by OŎ Landes-Kultur GmbH, Austria (2022). Given her research experience, interest in archival spaces Moomal is best suited to be Project Coordinator for this Foundation Project of IFA.

The collection of correspondences in the Archives at NCBS holds a range of materials of personal, institutional, quasi-institutional and logistical nature - from letters expressing gratitude, reciprocity to requests, suggestions, clarifications, personal regards, news sharing, critiques, to permissions, grant applications, recommendations, appointments, job referrals, travel and planning. These materials, though varied, resonate rich interconnections between them. By entering the archival space from a feminist epistemological entry point, the Project Coordinator aims to study the collections to understand and create a non-linear model of knowledge and affects which move with intimacy within and beyond the archive of the NCBS scientific community. Being a practitioner of weaving, Moomal is naturally interested in networks, knots, densities and embodiment. Drawing from the form of a spider’s web, Moomal aims to juxtapose this woven form onto the various materials found in the collections. The non-linear expression of the study modelled on the idea of hypertext and act of listening will result in the creation of a sound installation and a performance script. The outcomes seek to bring forth the many accumulations that an archive holds when it is read through the multiple expressions of attitudes towards a scientific practice.

Moomal has divided the project term broadly in two phases. The first phase will largely be the research and development phase where the Project Coordinator will conduct comprehensive literature review of existing scholarship on feminist epistemology, archival studies, and theories on hypertext and network analysis. In depth study of the archival collection at NCBS will also be undertaken focussing on the correspondences, which will lead to development of conceptual framework for creation of the installation. The second phase of the project will be focussed on the production that would involve creation of audio-bytes, experiments with sensors and audio forms, its testing, on-site installation and writing of the performative script. The last few months of this phase will look into the finalisation of the installation, dissemination of the project and collaborative performances.

The outcomes of the project will be a collapsible-extendable-mobile performance script and a sound installation inspired by the ideas of opacity and translucency in archives and acts of listening. The Project Coordinator’s final deliverables to IFA along with the final reports will be the performance script, audio-visual documentation of the online and offline performances, photos and audios of the installation.

IFA will ensure that the implementation of this project happens in a timely manner and funds expended are accounted for. IFA will also review the progress of the project at midterm and document it through an Implementation Memorandum. After the project is finished and all deliverables are submitted, IFA will put together a Final Evaluation to share with Trustees.

This project is supported by Tata Trusts.